Though some WWF fans may think they heard The Big Show utter what sounded
like a racial slur on Monday's Raw Is War show, Jim Ross, Vice-President
of the World Wrestling Federation, is saying that's not the case, nor
would the promotion ever tolerate such hateful language on their television
broadcasts.

"The bottom line is it was not written for him and he did not enunciate
very clearly. He was talking kind of fast and somewhat out of character,
trying to be hip or cool, and it came out sounding like it was 'gooks', as
in the slanderous remark," Ross told SLAM! Wrestling today as he took time
out from WCW meetings in Atlanta, Georgia, to address the issue.

Ross stated that word The Big Show really said when talking about his
Japanese foes, Kaientai, was "goofs". Ironically, in Canada the promo followed an
on-air statement made by TSN that the channel had violated the voluntary
Canadian Broadcast Standards Council code by not editing segments of Raw Is
War in the past.

According to Ross, both he and commentator Paul Heyman heard Big Show's
remark over their head-sets at the time it was made. Heyman immediately
expressed concern that viewers at home would be confused and think the
worst. Ross and Heyman decided to bring it up again later in the show so
that the situation could be explained and the air cleared.

TSN attempted to bleep out the word but were only successful in masking
part of it. Ross says the reason that was done was to prevent any
misunderstanding not because The Big Show had uttered something
inappropriate.

"If I was at home and I wasn't paying that much attention to it, I might
have thought the same thing as well," Ross said.

According to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications
Commission regulations no "abusive comment or abusive pictorial
representation that, when taken in context, tends to or is likely to expose
an individual or a group or class of individuals to hatred or contempt on
the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, sexual
orientation, age or mental or physical disability" can be aired on Canadian
television.

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council code addresses the same issue
stating in its Human Rights clause that "broadcasters shall endeavour to
ensure, to the best of their ability, that their programming contains no
abusive or discriminatory material or comment which is based on matters of
race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, marital status
or physical or mental handicap".

When contacted by SLAM! Wrestling, a spokesperson for the CRTC said that as
of yet, they haven't received any complaints about the incident and because
of that they have no investigation planned.